The present invention relates to improvements in methods of and in apparatus for manipulating elongated rod-shaped commodities, and more particularly to improvements in methods of and apparatus for changing the direction of transport of elongated rod-shaped commodities or articles, especially cigarettes, filter rod sections and other types of smokers' products having a cross-sectional outline departing from a circular or truly circular outline. Typical examples of commodities which can be manipulated in accordance with the method and in the apparatus of the present invention are plain or filter cigarettes having an elliptical or oval cross-sectional outline with a major axis and a minor axis normal to the major axis.
It is often necessary to transfer elongated rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry between a first path, wherein the articles form a file of successive coaxial or substantially coaxial articles, and a second path wherein the articles are intended or compelled to move sideways, i.e., at least substantially at right angles to their longitudinal axes. For example, it is often necessary or desirable to introduce successive cigarettes of a file of oval cigarettes into the first path in such a way that the minor axes of their elliptical outlines extend at least substantially vertically. An advantage of such advancement of cigarettes having elliptical cross-sectional outlines (hereinafter called oval cigarettes for short) is that a substantial portion (namely about one-half) of the external surface of the tubular wrapper of the oval cigarette is available for engagement by the holders of a delivering device which lifts successive cigarettes out of the first path and advances them to a receiving portion of a second path wherein the cigarettes are compelled to move sideways, i.e., at least substantially at right angles to their respective longitudinal axes. The means for moving the cigarettes in the second path at right angles to their respective longitudinal axes normally comprises a substantially cylindrical or drum-shaped conveyor having axially parallel cigarette-receiving and attracting receptacles in the form of flutes which are or can be parallel to the axis of the conveyor and to the longitudinal axes of the cigarettes arriving at the cigarette-receiving or accepting portion of the second path.
As used herein, the term "lengthwise transport" denotes an advancement of a file of successive oval cigarettes in the direction of their longitudinal axes. On the other hand, the expression "sidewise conveying, advancement or transport" is intended to identify a movement at least substantially at right angles to the direction of movement of an oval cigarette along the first path.
The first path can receive successive discrete cigarettes or successive pairs or sets of two or more cigarettes which are obtained as a result of repeated severing of a continuous cigarette rod which is formed by draping a continuous web or strip of cigarette paper or other suitable wrapping material around a continuous tobacco- and/or filter material-containing filler. The cutter is an orbiting knife which severs the continuous cigarette rod by repeatedly severing the leader of the cigarette rod, and the discrete cigarettes of the thus obtained file of oval cigarettes are often introduced into an at least substantially horizontal channel which delivers the cigarettes to a first transfer station where the holders of the aforementioned delivering device accept successive cigarettes or groups of coaxial cigarettes for transport to a second transfer station where the cigarettes begin to move exclusively sideways, i.e., at right angles to their respective longitudinal axes, for example, into a cigarette packing machine.
The aforementioned delivering device can be designed to operate in a manner substantially as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,947 granted Oct. 4, 1977 to Schumacher et al. for "TRANSFER APPARATUS FOR CIGARETTES OR THE LIKE". The holders of the delivering device in the patented apparatus attract individual cigarettes or pairs of coaxial cigarettes by suction. For example, the first path can be defined by a channeled guide of the type disclosed in UK patent No. 1 253 617.
The delivering device in the apparatus disclosed in the '947 patent to Schumacher et al. does not change the orientation or angular positions of the cigarettes which are being delivered from the discharge end of the first path into the receiving end of the second path. Thus, if the minor axis of an oval cigarette arriving at the discharge end of the first path is vertical, such axis remains vertical during delivery toward as well as during transfer into a peripheral flute of a rotary conveyor defining the second path (for sidewise movement of oval cigarettes, e.g., to a so-called filter tipping machine wherein plain cigarettes are united with filter rod sections or mouthpieces of unit length or multiple unit length, or to a packing machine).
The delivering device of the type disclosed in the '947 patent to Schumacher et al. advances discrete cigarettes or groups of several coaxial cigarettes along a portion of an endless path to a position (namely to the receiving station or portion of the second path) when the extent of axial movement of the cigarettes has been reduced to zero so that the thus arrested successive cigarettes or groups of cigarettes can enter successive axially parallel peripheral flutes of the endless rotary conveyor which defines the second path.
If the channeled guide which defines the first path is designed to accept and advance a file of oval cigarettes, the groove is configurated in such a way that the minor axis of the elliptical cross-sectional outline of the cigarette is vertical or nearly vertical. This means that, since the delivering device does not change the angular positions of such oval cigarettes during transfer from the first path to the receiving portion of the second path, the peripheral flutes of the rotary conveyor (i.e., of the conveyor which defines the second path and is normally mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis) necessarily receive successive oval cigarettes in such orientation that the minor axes are vertical, the same as in the first path and during delivery from the first path to the second path. Such mode of introducing oval cigarettes into the peripheral flutes of the rotary drum-shaped conveyor is not the optimum mode because the stability of an oval cigarette in a peripheral flute is much more satisfactory if the minor axis is disposed radially of the normally horizontal axis of the rotary conveyor. Otherwise stated, it is desirable to introduce oval cigarettes into the axially parallel peripheral flutes of a rotary drum-shaped conveyor in such a way that the major axis of the elliptical cross-sectional outline of the cigarette in a flute extends tangentially of the periphery of the conveyor, i.e., at least substantially in a plane which is parallel to the axis of rotation of such conveyor.